DES MOINES – Gov. Terry Branstad announced last week that Iowa now generates over 31.3% of its energy from wind. According to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iowa is now the first and only state in the United States that has crossed the 30% mark.
“We are proud of Iowa’s leadership in wind energy,” said Gov. Branstad, Chairman of the Governor’s Wind and Solar Energy Coalition. “We’ve seen exponential growth in wind energy and the data released last week reinforces what we’ve been seeing in every corner of our state. With potential to jump above 40% in the next five years, we are committed to building an even greener Iowa future that will provide our Iowa families with cleaner, renewable energy and job opportunities.”
Growing wind farms in Iowa has attracted $11.8 billion dollars to the state’s economy according to data released by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) last week. Wind can supply 40 percent of the Hawkeye State’s in-state electricity generation within the next five years – generating enough electricity for 6.3 million average American homes – according to a report by AWEA that uses U.S. Department of Energy data.
Lt. Gov. Reynolds added, “As Chair of the Iowa Energy Plan, I’ve heard first-hand from existing and prospective companies how important it is to have clean, renewable and reliable sources of energy like wind. The data released last week shows how committed Iowa is to promoting an environment for companies to grow and innovate. But we are not done yet and believe that Iowa is on the forefront of an even greater renewable future for our state.”
“Iowa is blessed with world-class wind resources,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association. “We’re tapping into this homegrown resource more than ever thanks to American innovation and U.S. workers building the most productive wind turbines in the world. More than ever low-cost wind energy is keeping our air clean and cutting costs for consumers. American wind power is well on its way to supply 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030.”
we have alot of wind trubines in worth county the only thing we get out of them is the revenue of them being here,.., most of the power from them goes to florida or wisconsin.. Not what we were told when they went up..
You might get the revenue but by the time you pay for the subsidy you are getting nothing.
Subsidies are a far better investment than the expense of blood and treasure when we go to war over oil. How many senseless American deaths are related to renewable energy? Everything has a price.
We don’t need to go anywhere for oil or natural gas. We have more right here than they do in other country’s. You should really try to keep up and read the news.
You should really try to keep up and read the news because we are at war over oil! It is beside the fact that we have more here than any other country as our government would rather go to war to obtain the foreign oil then use the oil right here in America. This means we are losing American soldiers every day due to that war
We are at war and losing soldiers every day because Obama will not let them fight to win. We should get the hell out of there and if necessary drop the big one on the savages. Then they wouldn’t have the oil and we don’t need it. Did you ever hear of shale oil and fracking?
Do you realize that the 11.8 billion dollars spent was from tax credits supplied by the taxpayers of Iowa. In other words, the money came from the wallets of Iowa taxpayers.
Not to mention that we also had an increase in our electric bills to help pay for all this green energy.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the “green” too, it’s just that we Iowa consumers would have been much better off if we just built the dam Windmills ourselves and then lowered our monthly electric bills. The public/private BS is all about funneling our money up the the political bigshots and their rich friends.
Don’t ya just love all this socialism?
And this is exactly what happens when we work together for the common good and put aside our partisan bickering. One more step in energy independence!
But not Cerro Gordo County
Ya Iowa a very progressive state and very open minded!!! Love it!